Just like the experience I hard recently with a centralized exchange where almost half of my funding wallet was wioed off simply because of a routine security check that made me unable to make transactions from the wallet until I contacted support for help.
Free wallet is a no go area for any one who value decentralization and freedom to you funds.
Topic: Bitcoin wallet to avoid (Read 568 times)
Thanks for the in-depth explanation and advice, I have been skeptical of the centralized exchange most especially in regard to users' privacy protection. I guess my choice of using a free wallet was an amateur decision and now that I know I can't make such a mistake of trusting centralized wallets anymore.
I wouldn't say that using a free wallet was an amateur decision; in fact, I don't think I've ever paid for Bitcoin wallet software. It should all be free and open-source. I do know that there exist scammers trying to sell people Electrum and sometimes those copies can even be infected; stay away from paid wallets.Of course, if you want a hardware device it will cost money, but the software should be free.
Just get something that is open-source and verifiable (you can check a wallet's on https://walletscrutiny.com/); as second factor make sure it's at least a little bit popular. Open code doesn't help if nobody's audited it. Then as a third factor look at the features you want and need.
Edit: I just noticed that you apparently used a wallet called 'FreeWallet'. As I said, Bitcoin wallets are always free; but since people tend to look online for stuff like 'best free Bitcoin wallet' or 'free music site' and such, these scammers chose that name so they rank high. When I say that I recommend free wallets (2 words), I mean that I recommend wallets that cost nothing to download. I would never recommend 'FreeWallet'. There's a distinction to make between the two terms; please use words carefully so it's clear what you mean.
Thanks for the in-depth explanation and advice, I have been skeptical of the centralized exchange most especially in regard to users' privacy protection. I guess my choice of using a free wallet was an amateur decision and now that I know I can't make such a mistake of trusting centralized wallets anymore.
I wouldn't say that using a free wallet was an amateur decision; in fact, I don't think I've ever paid for Bitcoin wallet software. It should all be free and open-source. I do know that there exist scammers trying to sell people Electrum and sometimes those copies can even be infected; stay away from paid wallets.Of course, if you want a hardware device it will cost money, but the software should be free.
Just get something that is open-source and verifiable (you can check a wallet's on https://walletscrutiny.com/); as second factor make sure it's at least a little bit popular. Open code doesn't help if nobody's audited it. Then as a third factor look at the features you want and need.
Edit: I just noticed that you apparently used a wallet called 'FreeWallet'. As I said, Bitcoin wallets are always free; but since people tend to look online for stuff like 'best free Bitcoin wallet' or 'free music site' and such, these scammers chose that name so they rank high. When I say that I recommend free wallets (2 words), I mean that I recommend wallets that cost nothing to download. I would never recommend 'FreeWallet'. There's a distinction to make between the two terms; please use words carefully so it's clear what you mean.
I have been skeptical about using centralized exchange p2p trading because of the risk of not just losing my coin but also illegal money being traced to my account from a scammer through p2p transactions.
Just be careful of scammers and do my involve yourself in scam activities, you can also use centralized exchange if you want. Decentralized exchanges are recommended if you are privacy conscious.The main problem of centralized exchanges is that some people have the mentality of keeping coins on the exchange, centralized exchanges are often hacked.
Another problem is that you will not have privacy, the exchange you will be using knows almost everything about you. Even if the exchange was hacked and no coin was stolen, users' data (KYC) can be stolen which scammers can later indirectly used against the victim in fraudulent attempts.
Another big problem is that your account can be freezed at anytime, but if you are not involve in any illegal activity, you can challenge the exchange, but even if your account is gotten back, what about the inconveniences during when it was freezed. You do not have the total control of your coins because the coins are not even yours on the blockchain.
I have been skeptical about using centralized exchange p2p trading because of the risk of not just losing my coin but also illegal money being traced to my account from a scammer through p2p transactions.
Just be careful of scammers and do not involve yourself in scam activities, you can also use centralized exchange if you want. Decentralized exchanges are recommended if you are privacy conscious.The main problem of centralized exchanges is that some people have the mentality of keeping coins on the exchange, centralized exchanges are often hacked.
Another problem is that you will not have privacy, the exchange you will be using knows almost everything about you. Even if the exchange was hacked and no coin was stolen, users' data (KYC) can be stolen which scammers can later indirectly used against the victim in fraudulent attempts.
Another big problem is that your account can be freezed at anytime, but if you are not involve in any illegal activity, you can challenge the exchange, but even if your account is gotten back, what about the inconveniences during when it was freezed. You do not have the total control of your coins because the coins are not even yours on the blockchain.
I have been skeptical about using centralized exchange p2p trading because of the risk of not just losing my coin but also illegal money being traced to my account from a scammer through p2p transactions.
Do you mean money that centralized exchanges could freeze and ask you about its origins because they suspect it's a matter of money laundering or other illegal activities? The problem doesn't disappear with decentralized exchanges. It's still there. It's just that there is no staff that will make background checks on the history of the coins. But you could still end up buying bitcoins that stem from illegal activities, hacks, etc. Tainted (although it's a very unpopular word) in one way or the other. It would even be logical to think that the risk is even greater with decentralized platforms because they are anonymous, and hence both parties don't need to identify themselves. The first and last experience I have been using wallets without private keys most especially from the exchange and since only centralized exchanges like binance and the rest are the available means of doing p2p trading we used to rely on them.
Centralized p2p are just only convenient means of making p2p transactions but not the only means, there are decentralized p2p as well. Some decentralized exchanges
https://localcryptos.com/
https://hodlhodl.com/
https://bisq.network/
Centralized exchanges can be hacked, customers do not have full control. It is not customers key it is not customers' coin on blockchain. Exchanges are better for frequently trading, but noncustododial wallet for holding. Any inactive coins on centralized exchange accounts is safer to be moved to a noncustododial wallet for safety reasons.
The first and last experience I have been using wallets without private keys most especially from the exchange and since only centralized exchanges like binance and the rest are the available means of doing p2p trading we used to rely on them.
Centralized p2p are just only convenient means of making p2p transactions but not the only means, there are decentralized p2p as well. Some decentralized exchanges
https://localcryptos.com/
https://hodlhodl.com/
https://bisq.network/
Centralized exchanges can be hacked, customers do not have full control. It is not customers key it is not customers' coin on blockchain. Exchanges are better for frequently trading, but noncustododial wallet for holding. Any inactive coins on centralized exchange accounts is safer to be moved to noncustododial wallet for safety reasons.
People generally don't care, they use what is convenient for them, they buy what the herd is buying influenced by paid shillers commercials/youtuber advertising.
From my perspective, even the term "generally" is being used too wide sadly ... I'm still yet to find someone whom I have a discussion about Bitcoin with (in person) that has:- Used a P2P exchange;
- Withdraw his/her money from a centralized exchange;
- Thought about the dangers of not knowing his/her private key;
- Know how BTC actually works and hasn't bought it due to the media waves from years past;
I think that a considerable part of people that do end up using hardware wallets - at least form the current era - most likely heard about them from some crypto influencer / youtube schiller, so they'll just buy whatever they tell them to buy. The danger of this kind of approach is that you end up being led to buy something that someone on the internet told you that it's great, making you forfeit the stage where you should do your own investigation into the products that are being presented to you before making any blind purchase. I think that this % of users is still considerable because most of the Youtube audience blindly trust the information of whoever they follow, which may result in not so ... informative choices being made.
I think that a considerable part of people that do end up using hardware wallets - at least form the current era - most likely heard about them from some crypto influencer / youtube schiller, so they'll just buy whatever they tell them to buy.
I also like to listen what some youtubers have to say about about specific hardware wallet, and I like to read reviews about them, but I will always make a final decision if I will buy that wallet or not.If anyone want's to do more deeper research and testing of some wallet they would need to actually test and use it for some time, but that is not likely to happen for most people.
I can't really speak bad things about something that I never used, and I can't make full picture of something without testing.
You nailed it. People generally don't care but the reason for lack of caring is lack of knowledge. They simply don't know the risks of doing that.
Maybe they have some superficial knowledge they picked up from yotube, but only minority of people is honest with reviewing wallets, maybe because majority is paid to be dishonest. 
You shouldn't avoid coinomi because of slowness of some third party service. You should avoid coinomi wallet because it is closed source and shady with a terrible history of doing things that have no reasonable explanations such as sending users' seed phrase to a remote server!
Than explain to me why are so many people still using ledger junk that is closed source, they leaked private customer information multiple times, their devices are full of bugs/issues and they have same third party exchanges?I think coinomi was open source before, and this issue you are talking about it resolved, but I would still not recommend it.
People generally don't care, they use what is convenient for them, they buy what the herd is buying influenced by paid shillers commercials/youtuber advertising.
When a newbie goes to Coinomi website it won't tell them of the risks or about the closed source shady history of it. Instead it toots its own horn by talking about the features and make it appear as the safest thing in existence!
People generally don't care, they use what is convenient for them, they buy what the herd is buying influenced by paid shillers commercials/youtuber advertising.
From my perspective, even the term "generally" is being used too wide sadly ... I'm still yet to find someone whom I have a discussion about Bitcoin with (in person) that has:- Used a P2P exchange;
- Withdraw his/her money from a centralized exchange;
- Thought about the dangers of not knowing his/her private key;
- Know how BTC actually works and hasn't bought it due to the media waves from years past;
I think that a considerable part of people that do end up using hardware wallets - at least form the current era - most likely heard about them from some crypto influencer / youtube schiller, so they'll just buy whatever they tell them to buy. The danger of this kind of approach is that you end up being led to buy something that someone on the internet told you that it's great, making you forfeit the stage where you should do your own investigation into the products that are being presented to you before making any blind purchase. I think that this % of users is still considerable because most of the Youtube audience blindly trust the information of whoever they follow, which may result in not so ... informative choices being made.
You shouldn't avoid coinomi because of slowness of some third party service. You should avoid coinomi wallet because it is closed source and shady with a terrible history of doing things that have no reasonable explanations such as sending users' seed phrase to a remote server!
Than explain to me why are so many people still using ledger junk that is closed source, they leaked private customer information multiple times, their devices are full of bugs/issues and they have same third party exchanges?I think coinomi was open source before, and this issue you are talking about it resolved, but I would still not recommend it.
People generally don't care, they use what is convenient for them, they buy what the herd is buying influenced by paid shillers commercials/youtuber advertising.
You shouldn't avoid coinomi because of slowness of some third party service. You should avoid coinomi wallet because it is closed source and shady with a terrible history of doing things that have no reasonable explanations such as sending users' seed phrase to a remote server!
To spellcheck the seed words, no less. Back when that issue was discovered, I remember their forum representative saying they only did that with the desktop version, and the same way of handling your private data wasn't present in their mobile software. So they weren't putting all of their users coins at risk, just a bit of it. 
But since the wallet is closed-source, who can verify that what they are claiming is true? No one. You shouldn't avoid coinomi because of slowness of some third party service. You should avoid coinomi wallet because it is closed source and shady with a terrible history of doing things that have no reasonable explanations such as sending users' seed phrase to a remote server!
To spellcheck the seed words, no less. Back when that issue was discovered, I remember their forum representative saying they only did that with the desktop version, and the same way of handling your private data wasn't present in their mobile software. So they weren't putting all of their users coins at risk, just a bit of it. But since the wallet is closed-source, who can verify that what they are claiming is true? No one. Just throwing this out here if its about wallets to avoid = coinomi (really really slow Exchange function compared to other wallets that have exchange function)
You shouldn't avoid coinomi because of slowness of some third party service. You should avoid coinomi wallet because it is closed source and shady with a terrible history of doing things that have no reasonable explanations such as sending users' seed phrase to a remote server! Just throwing this out here if its about wallets to avoid = coinomi (really really slow Exchange function compared to other wallets that have exchange function)
Is that an exchange service that Coinomi provides or do they use some third-party instant exchange? I think Coinomi has partnerships with Changelly, Simplex and maybe some other providers. If there is an issue with an exchange or a swap, Coinomi won't take responsibility for it. They will probably tell you to contact the exchange provider to find out what went wrong or they will do it for you because they aren't the ones offering the service.
Just throwing this out here if its about wallets to avoid = coinomi (really really slow Exchange function compared to other wallets that have exchange function)
Ops I had a very bad experience with the wallet also but my mind was just delayed transaction for some days by it was later reflected on my balance, another bad feature of free Bitcoin wallet is the high fee charged on the transaction I don't know why mutant newbies always fall for that wallet thank goodness people like you are speaking out.
a Bitcoin wallet provider.
This defeats the whole purpose of bitcoin! Bitcoin was created, and we use it because it doesn't need any third parties and middle men to be used. If we go back to using them through custodial wallets, then there is no reason to use bitcoin in first place.In any case any bitcoin wallet should satisfy the following conditions:
1. Is 100% open source (even if a single component is closed source, the wallet should be avoided)
2. Is old (it has to have been around for a while)
3. Is popular so that it is reviewed by enough experts and most bugs are fixed
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